A Politician's Handshake

Sam Brownback has the best handshake and really looks you right in the eye :-) When I met him at my workplace a few months ago that was what struck me most – it really is a very nice handshake accompanied by an open look and I wondered whether all politicians had that honest kind of look. But not really. I think Sam Brownback’s open look and handshake beats most of them :-) I read in the news that a California legislator did not endorse Mitt Romney because “he did not look at him in the eye”, and there was a similar comment about Rudolph Giuliani in New Hampshire – that he does not look people in the eye long enough :-)

He has very republican views that I do not agree with – privatizing social security, leaving health insurance to the market etc. But when he was at my workplace we had an interesting discussion on one topic – on bringing businesses and jobs to rural communities. Just then Google had set up a data center in rural North Carolina, generating a number of jobs. We discussed whether that was a good approach – taking IT companies to rural areas in America, instead of outsourcing them all. He took out a piece of cloth from his pocket, made apparently as an agricultural byproduct. I am not sure how economically viable that is – but his thoughts on that topic are interesting. Rural communities are hurting because of jobs that are leaving.